"I know I'm selfish, Mother," he blurted out; "I know I shouldn't even allow myself to think of such a thing. But when I think of her leaving us--of--of going off to live with some one else--I--I just can't stand it." Then raising his head and fixing his deep grey eyes upon his mother's face, "I'd rather die than live without Nina."
When she had at last sent him away to bed Hannah Peniman sat for a long time before the dying fire.
Joe--her Joe--her son--her baby--was not a boy any more--he was a man!
The eyes that had looked into hers this night, the voice that had spoken out of a heart yet unknown to itself, were not the eyes, the voice of a child. And the knowledge left pain in her heart, and wonder.
She rose presently and going to the door called Nina.
As the girl came bounding into the room Hannah Peniman looked at her with new eyes. The little Princess was now a slender, graceful, beautiful girl of fourteen, with a head of rippling gold, eyes like wood-violets, and a face so entrancingly lovely that Mrs. Peniman's heart sank as she looked at it.
She drew the girl gently down on a chair beside her.
"Listen, dear," her voice was low, almost sad, as she spoke, "you never knew the Indian that Ruth found on the prairies to-day and that Father and the boys buried this evening, but he has done you a great, an inestimable service. You have heard us speak of him, and how we took care of Eagle Eye when he was wounded. That was at the time that both you and Joe were away, after you were kidnapped by the Indians. Father Peniman trusted Eagle Eye, and told him your story. He went away without a word, but in some way he got possession of the box containing your papers----"
"The box--_the dispatch-box_--that Mother left me?"
"Yes, Nina. He got it, and he was bringing it back to us when he became lost in the blizzard. He gave his life in the effort to restore it."
"But the box--the box--Mother's box?" cried Nina, her hands clasped, her face white, her eyes wide and pleading.
"That was the box that Ruth found this afternoon lying on the prairie beside Eagle Eye's body."
"And you have it--you got it--it--it----" her agitation was too great for words.
Mrs. Peniman laid her hand over the little shaking hands that were clasped against Nina's breast.